Switchfoot swaps band instruments for building tools, raises over $100,000 for Habitat for Humanity

Multi-Platinum selling band Switchfoot concluded its 34-city Appetite for Construction Tour with Relient K and Ruth in Everett, WA Dec. 3.

The benefit tour that hit such major markets as New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas and more, raised over $100,000 for Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.

With an average of over 3,000 tickets sold per night, and raising one dollar for every ticket sold for Habitat for Humanity, the impact of the tour leaves a lasting legacy. All of the money raised is going directly back into the local Habitat affiliates in each of the 34 tour markets.

In addition to the monetary contribution, Switchfoot members swapped their musical instruments for building tools and worked side by side with future Habitat homeowners at several build sites across the country, including sites in San Diego, Houston, Seattle (Everett, WA) and Baton Rouge.

The band further met with and gave tickets to top Habitat for Humanity volunteers in tour markets.

"[Our fans have bought] a lot of tickets and CDs and T-shirts and stickers and you leave a tour with those sorts of numbers and people say that's a successful tour. I disagree. That doesn't mean anything," says Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman in an interview with the Charleston Daily Mail.

"I want us to have a touring history that has impacted people in other ways than selling them a product.

"To plug them into an amazing organization like Habitat is an honor. For us it's a chance to donate more than money...if people can't donate money, they can still use their hands to help."

Switchfoot guitarist, keyboardist Jerome Fontamillas echoed in an interview with the Mobile Register that Habitat for Humanity's focus and efficiency are what won the band's support. "The thing that excites me about Habitat is the idea that it is local.

"They've got an incredibly tight ship as far as how much of the money actually goes directly into the houses. The thing that blew me away the most is that they've housed more than a million people around the planet."

"One of the beauties about Habitat for Humanity is that there is virtually an endless range of opportunities for people to contribute?and to become part of the solution. Our friends in Switchfoot are an inspiring example of this," says Habitat for Humanity CEO Jonathan Reckford.

"Not only are they financially supporting our work with families in need of decent, affordable shelter, but they've also worked hard on Habitat build sites to engage in that part of Habitat's effort.

"Even beyond that, they're providing a strong voice both literally and figuratively for so many families whose housing plights go too often unheard. Habitat is very grateful and very proud of the friend we have in Switchfoot."

Inspired by Habitat for Humanity, co-headliners Switchfoot and Relient K also wrote a song for this tour, "Rebuild," which they performed together each night of the tour.

The song continues to inspire fans to the charitable work as Switchfoot offers the song for free on its website, www.switchfoot.com/rebuild, asking fans to donate time or funds to Habitat for Humanity.

Since its inception, Switchfoot has been actively involved in a number of humanitarian causes, including DATA, Bono's THE ONE Campaign, Invisible Children and To Write Love on Her Arms.

It also founded the Switchfoot Bro-Am, a surfing and music benefit-event raising money and awareness for Care House, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving homeless teens, teens in crisis and young mothers in crisis throughout San Diego County.

The band further started the online magazine, lowercase people (www.lowercasepeople.com), a daring new endeavor to revolutionize the way beauty, truth and humanity is viewed.

With over 5 million records sold, three albums in the Billboard Top 20, two top-five singles at both pop and alternative radio, Switchfoot is also recognized as one of the hardest touring bands in rock. Playing its first concert in Singapore next month, the San Diego-based band has sold more than two million concert tickets worldwide since the 2003 release of its double-Platinum breakthrough album The Beautiful Letdown.

With an ever-growing fan base, Switchfoot continues international touring in support of its next two critically acclaimed albums, Nothing Is Sound and Oh! Gravity.
Recorded at Big Fish Recording in Encinitas, CA, Oh! Gravity. showcases a harder rock direction for Switchfoot.

The album debuted at No. 1 on the iTunes chart and has received stellar reviews, with Billboard magazine calling it "the best of the San Diego group's nearly 10-year recording career." Spin exclaims this album is "their liveliest record, full of dive-bombing guitar fuzz, juicy arena-alt choruses."

"This is an outstanding record in every sense," raved Associated Press. Alternative Press found that "Oh! Gravity. [is a] sparkling, focused album bursting at the seams with giant hooks and even bigger ideas. In fact, Oh! Gravity. is Switchfoot's most diverse disc to date."

Switchfoot's Jon Foreman also returns to his indie-scene roots by releasing four solo EPs over the coming months. These EPs, individually titled Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer, will be released prior to the upcoming Switchfoot album in late 2008.

Switchfoot is: Jon Foreman (vocals, guitar); Tim Foreman (bass, backing vocals); Chad Butler (drums); Jerome Fontamillas (guitar, keys, backing vocals); and Andrew Shirley (guitar).? For more information, go to www.switchfoot.com.